The Jātaka, vol. IV (nos. 439-510)

“Come, noble Goose, come sit you here; dear is your sight to me; Now you are master of the place; choose anything you see.” The Great Being perched on the golden seat. The king anointed him under the wings with unguents a hundred times refined, nay, a thousand times, gave him sweet rice and sugared water in a golden dish, and talked with him in a voice of honey—[215] “Good friend, you have come alone; whence come you now?” The bird told, him the whole matter at large. Then the king said to him: “ Friend, show. me too your swiftness against the sun.”—‘“‘O mighty king, that swiftness cannot be shown.”—‘“ Then show me something like it.” — “Very good, O king, I will show you something like it. Summon your archers who can shoot swift as lightning.” The king sent for them. The Great Being chose four of these, and with them went down from the palace into the courtyard. There he caused to be set up in the ground a stone column, and about his own neck a bell to be bound. He then perched on the top of the stone pillar, and placing the four archers looking away from the pillar towards the four points, said, ‘‘O king, let these four men shoot four arrows at the same moment in four

1 The meaning is, the bird circled so fast over it as to give the appearance of acanopy. Soon p. 133 of the ‘golden mat.’ different directions, aud I will catch these arrows before they touch the ground, and lay them at the men’s feet. You will know when I am gone for the arrows by the tinkling of this bell, but I shall not be seen.” Then all at one moment the men shot the four arrows; he caught them and laid them at the men’s feet, and was seen to be sitting upon the pillar. “Did you see my speed, O king?” he asked; then went on— “that speed, O great king, is not my swiftest nor my middle speed, ’tis my slowest of the slow: and this will show you how swift I am.” Then the king asked him, “ Well, friend, is there any speed swifter than yours?” “There is, my friend. Swifter than my swiftest a hundredfold, a thousandfold, nay a hundred thousandfold, is the decay of the elements of life in living beings: so they crumble away, so they are destroyed.” Thus he made clear, how the world of form crumbles away, being destroyed moment by moment. The king hearing this was in fear of death, could not keep his senses, but fell in a faint. The multitude were in despair, they sprinkled the king’s face with water, and brought him round. Then the Great Being said to him, “O great king, fear not ; [216] but remember death. Walk in righteousness, give alms and do good, be careful.” Then the king answered and said, “‘ My lord, without a wise teacher like you I cannot live, do not return’ to mount Cittakita, but stay here, instruct me, be my teacher to teach me!” and he put this request in two stanzas : “By hearing of the loved one love is fed, By sight the craving for the lost falls dead:

Since sight and hearing makes men lief and dear, With sight of you let me be favouréd. “Dear is your voice, and dearer far your presence when I see: Then since I love the sight of you, O Goose, come dwell with me!” The Bodhisatta said : “Ever would I dwell with thee, in the honour thus conferred; _ But thou mightst say in wine one day—‘Broil me that royal Bird!’” [217] “No,” said the king, “then I will never touch wine or strong drink,” and he made this promise in the following stanza: “ Accursed be both food and drink I should love more than thee ; And I will taste no drop nor sup while thou shalt stay with me!” After this the Bodhisatta recited six stanzas : “The ery of jackals or of birds is understood with ease ; Yea, but the word of men, O king, is darker far than these! “A man may think, ‘this is my friend, my comrade, of my kin,’ But friendship goes, and often hate and enmity begin”. 1 Reading agantva in line 4. 2 These two couplets oceur again in No. 478 (p. 141). 136 The Jataka. Book XIII. “Who has your heart, is near to you, with you, where’er he be ; But who dwells with you, and your heart estranged, afar is he.

“Who in your house of kindly heart shall be Is kindly still though far across the sea : Who in your house shall hostile be of heart, Hostile he is though ocean-wide apart. “Thy foes, O lord of chariots! though near thee, are afar : But, fosterer of thy realm! the good in heart close linkéd are. “Who stay too long, find oftentimes that friend is changed to foe ; Then ere I lose your friendship, I will take my leave, and go.” [218] Then the king said to him: “Though I with folded hands beseech, you will not give me ear ; You spare no word for us, to whom your service would be dear: I crave one favour: come again and pay a visit here.” Then the Bodhisatta said : “Tf nothing comes to snap our life, O king! if you and I Still live, O fosterer of thy folk! perhaps I’ll hither fly, And we may see each other yet, as days and nights go by.” With this address to the king, the Great Being departed to Cittakuta. When the Master had ended this discourse, he said: “Thus, Brethren, long ago, even when I was born as one of the animals, I showed the frailty of all life’s elements, and declared the Truth.” So saying, he identified the Birth: “At

that time Ananda was the king, Moggallana was the youngest bird, Sariputta was the second, the Buddha’s followers were all Geese of the flock, and I myself was the swift Goose.”

[219] “No wood is chopt,” ete.—This story the Master told, while dwelling at Jetavana, about the allurements of a coarse girl. There was then, we learn, a girl of about sixteen, daughter of a citizen of Savatthi, such as might bring good luck to a man, yet no man chose her. So her mother thought to herself: “This my daughter is of full age, yet no one chooses her. I will use her as a bait for a fish, and make one of those Sakiya ascetics come back to the world, and live upon him.” At the time there was a young man of good birth living in Savatthi, who had given his heart to religion and joined the Brotherhood. But from the time when he had received full Orders he had lost all desire for learning, and lived devoted to the adornment of his person. The lay Sister used to prepare in her house rice gruel, and other food hard or soft, and standing at the door, as the Brethren walked along the streets, looked out for some one who could be tempted by the craving for delicacies. Streaming by went a crowd of men who kept the Tepitaka, Abhidhamma, and Vinaya ; but among them she saw none ready to rise to her bait. Among the figures with bowl and robe, preachers of the Truth with honey-sweet voice, moving like fleecy scud before the wind, she saw not one.

But at last she perceived a man approaching, the outer corners of his eyes anointed, hair hanging down, wearing an under-robe of fine cloth, and an outer robe shaken and cleansed, bearing a bowl coloured like some precious gem, and a sunshade after his own heart, a man who let his senses have their own way, his body much bronzed. “Here is a man I can catch!” thought she; and greeting him, she took his bowl, and invited him into the house. She found him a seat, and provided rice gruel and all the rest; then after the meal, begged him to make that house his resort in future. So he used to visit the house after that, and in course of time became intimate.

One day, the lay Sister said in his hearing, “In this household we are happy enough, only I have no son or son-in-law capable of keeping it up.” The man heard it, and wondering what reason she could have for so saying, in a little while was as it were pierced to the heart. She said to her daughter, ‘“Tempt this man, and get him into your power.” So the girl after that time decked herself and adorned herself, and tempted him with all women’s tricks and wiles. {220} (You must understand that a ‘coarse’ girl does not mean one whose body is fat, but be she fat or be she thin, by power of the five sensual passions she is called ‘coarse’?) Then the man, being young and under the power of passion, thought in his heart, “I cannot now hold to the Buddha’s religion”; and he went to the monastery, and laying down bowl and robe, said to his spiritual teachers, “I am discontented.” Then they conducted him to the Master, and said, “Sir, this Brother is discontented.” ‘Is this true which they say,” asked he, “that you are discontented, Brother?” “Yes, Sir, true it is.” “Then what made you so?” “A coarse girl, Sir.” ‘ Brother,” said he, “long, long ago, when you were living in the forest, this same girl was a hindrance to your holiness, and did you great harm ; then why are you again discontented on her account?” Then at the request of the Brethren he told a story of the past.

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born into a brahmin family of great wealth, and after his education was finished managed the estate. Then his wife brought forth a son, and died. He thought, ‘As in my beloved wife, so in me death shall not be ashamed'; what is a home to me? I will become an ascetic.” So forsaking his lusts, he went with his son to Himalaya; and there with him entered upon the ascetic life, developed the mystic Trance and transcendent Knowledge, and dwelt in the woods, supporting life on fruits and roots. At that time the borderers raided the countryside; and having assailed a town, and taken prisoners, laden with spoil they returned to the border. Amongst them was a maiden, beautiful, but endowed with all a hypocrite’s cunning. This girl thought to herself, “These men, when they have carried us off home, will use us as slaves; I must find some 1 T.e. it shall master me too one day. 138 The Jataka. Book XIII. way to escape.” So she said, “My lord, I wish to retire; let me go and stay away for a moment.” Thus she deceived the robbers, and fled.

Now the Bodhisatta had gone out to fetch fruits and the like’, leaving his son in the hut. While he was away, this girl, as she wandered about in the forest, came to the hut, in the morning ; [221] and tempting the son of the ascetic with desire of love, destroyed his virtue, and got him under her power. She said to him, ‘‘Why dwell here in the forest? Come, let us go to a village and make a home for ourselves. There it is easy to enjoy all the pleasures and passions of sense.” He consented, and said, “My father is now out in the woods looking for wild fruits. When we have seen him, we will both go away together.” Then the girl thought, ‘This young innocent knows nothing; but his father must have become an ascetic in his old age. When he comes in, he will want to know what I do here, and beat me, and drag me out by the feet, and throw me into the forest. I will get clear away before he comes.” So she said to the lad, “I will go first, and you may follow”; then pointing out the landmarks, she departed. After she had gone, the lad became sorrowful, and did none of his duties as he was used; but wrapt himself up head and all, and lay down within the hut, fretting.

When the Great Being came in with his wild fruits, he observed the girl’s footmark. “That is a woman’s footprint,” thought he; “my son’s virtue must have been lost.” Then he entered the hut, and laid down the wild fruit, and put the question to his son by repeating the first stanza : “No wood is chopt, and you have brought no water from the pool, No fire is kindled: why do you lie mooning like a fool?” Hearing his father’s voice, the lad rose, and greeted him; and with all respect made known that he could not endure a forest life, repeating a couple of stanzas : “JT cannot live in forests: this, O Kassapa, I swear ; Hard is the woodland life, and back to men? I would repair. “Teach me, O brahmin, when I leave, that wheresoe’er I go, The customs of the countryside I may most fully know.” [222] “Very good, my son,” said the Great Being, “I will tell you the customs of the country.” And he repeated this couple of stanzas : “Tf ’tis your mind to leave behind the woodland fruits and roots And dwell in cities, hear me teach the way which that life suits :

‘Keep clear of every precipice, from poison keep afar, Sit never in the mud, and walk with care where serpents are.’” 1 Cf. No, 435, Vol. iii. 2 Literally ‘the Kingdom.’ The ascetic’s son, not understanding this pithy counsel, asked : “What has your precipice to do with the religious way, Your mud, your poison, and your snake? Come tell me this, I pray.” “There is a liquor in the world, my son, that men call wine, Fragrant, delicious, honey-sweet, and cheap, of flavour fine : This, Narada, for holy men is poison, say the wise. “And women in the world can set fools’ wits a whirling round, They catch young hearts, as hurricanes catch cotton from the ground : The precipice I mean is this before the good man lies. “High honours shown by other men, respect and fame and gain, This is the mud, O Narada, which holy men may stain. “Great monarchs with their retinue have in that world dwelling, And they are great, O Narada, and each a mighty king: [223]‘‘ Before the feet of sovereign lords and monarchs walk not thou, For, Narada, these are the snakes of whom I spake just now. “The house thou comest to for food, when men sit down to meat, If thou see good within that house, there take thy fill, and eat.

“When by another entertained with food or drink, this do: Eat not too much, nor drink too much, and fleshly lusts eschew. “From gossip, drink, lewd company, and shops of goldsmith’s ware, Keep thou afar as those who by the uneven pathway fare.” As his father went on talking and talking, the lad came to his senses, and said, “Enough of the world for me, dear father!” [224] Then his father instructed him how to develop kindliness and other good feelings. The son followed his father’s instruction, and ere long caused the ecstasy of mystic meditation to spring up within him. And both of them, father and son, without a break in the trance, were born again in the world of Brahma. When the Master had ended this discourse, he identified the Birth: “ At that time this coarse girl was the young woman, the discontented Brother was the ascetic’s son, and I was the father.”

“0 plunged in thought,’ ete.—This story the Master told while dwelling at Jetavana, about praise of his own wisdom. In the Hall of Truth they were gossiping: “See, Brothers, the Dasabala’s skill in resource! He showed that young 140 The Jataka. Book XIII. gentleman Nanda! the host of nymphs, and gave him sainthood ; he gave a cloth to his little foot-page2, and bestowed sainthood on him along with the four branches of mystic science?; to the blacksmith he showed a lotus, and gave him sainthood ; with what diverse expedients he instructs living beings!” The Master entering asked what they sat talking of ; they told him. Said he, “It is not the first time that the Tathagata has been skilled in resource, and clever to know what will have the desired effect ; clever he was before.” So saying, he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the country was without gold; for the king oppressed the country and so got treasure. At that time the Bodhisatta was born in a brahmin family of a certain village in Kasi. When he came of age, he went to Takkasila, saying, “I will get money to pay my teacher afterwards, by soliciting alms honourably.” He acquired learning, and when his education was done, he said, “I will use all diligence, my teacher, to bring you the money due for your teaching.” Then taking leave of him, he departed, and traversing the land sought alms.

When he had honourably and fairly got a few ounces‘ of gold, he set out to hand them over to his teacher ; and on the way went aboard a boat in order to cross the Ganges. As the boat swayed to and fro on the water, the gold fell in. Then he thought, “ This is a country hard to get gold in ; [225] if I go seeking again for money to pay my teacher withal, there will be long delay. What if I sit fasting on the bank of the Ganges? The king will by and bye come to learn of my sitting here, and he will send some of his courtiers, but I will have nothing to say to them. Then the king himself will come, and by that means I shall get my teacher’s fee from him.” So he wrapt about him his upper robe, and putting outside the sacrificial thread, sat on the bank of the Ganges, like a statue of gold upon the silver sand. The passing crowds, seeing him sit there and take no food, asked him why he sat. But he had never a word for one of them. Next day the villagers of the suburb got wind of his sitting there, and they too came and asked, but he told them no more; the villagers seeing his exhausted condition went away lamenting. On the third day came people from the city, on the fourth came the city grandees, on the fifth those about the king, on the sixth day the king sent his ministers ; but to none of them would the man speak.

* Buddha’s half-brother. For the allusion see No. 182, Samgivacara Jataka, and Hardy, Manual, p. 204; Warren, Buddhism in Translations, 269 ff. 3 Of attha-, dhamma-, nirutti-, patibhana-. For explanation of these obscure terms the reader is referred to Childers, p. 366; and Warren, Buddhism in Translations, Index s. v. ‘Analytical Sciences.’ 4 «Seven nikkha’s.’ Nikkho is a variable weight, equal to 250 phalas, which we may call grains. On the seventh day the king in alarm came to the man, and asked an explanation, reciting the first stanza: “O plunged in thought on Ganges’ bank, why spoke you not again In answer to my messages? Will you conceal your pain?” When this he heard, the Great Being replied, “O great king! the sorrow must be told to him that is able to take it away, and to no other :” and he repeated seven stanzas : “O fostering lord of Kasi land! if sorrow be your lot, Tell not that sorrow to a soul if he can help it not. ‘But whosoever can relieve one part of it by right, To him let all his wish declare each sorrow-stricken wight. “The cry of jackals or of birds is understood with ease; Yea, but the word of men, O King, is darker far than these!.

[226]“ A man may think, ‘This is my friend, my comrade, of my kin’: But friendship goes, and often hate and enmity begin !! “He who not being asked and asked again Out of due season will declare his pain, Surely displeases those who are his friends, And they who wish him well lament amain. “ Knowing fit time for speaking how to find, Knowing a wise man of a kindred mind, The wise to such a one his woe declares, In gentle words with meaning hid behind. “But should he see that nothing can amend His hardships, and that telling them will tend To no good issue, let the wise alone Endure, reserved and shamefast to the end.” [227] Thus did the Great Being discourse in these seven stanzas to teach the king; and then repeated four others to show his search for money to pay the teacher withal : “Q King! whole kingdoms I have scoured, the cities of each king, Each town or village, craving alms, my teacher’s fee to bring. “‘ Householder, courtier, man of wealth, brahmin—at every door Seeking, a little gold I gained, an ounce or two, no more. Now that is lost, O mighty king! and so I grieve full sore.

“No power had your messengers to free me from my pain :— I weigh’d them well, O mighty king! so I did not explain. “But thou hast power, O mighty king! to free me from my pain, For I have weighed your merit well; to you I do explain.” When the king read his utterance, he replied, ‘Trouble not, bralmin, for I will give you your teacher’s fee ;” and he restored him two-fold. 1 These two couplets oceur above in No, 476 (p. 135). 142 The Jataka. Book XITI. To make this clear the Master repeated the last stanza : “The fostering lord of Kasi land did to ‘this man restore (In fullest trust) of gold refined twice what he had before.” When the Great Being had thus delivered himself, he proceeded to pay his teacher’s fee ; and the king in like manner abode by his advice, giving alms and doing good, and ruled in righteousness. So did they both finally pass away according to their deeds. [228] When the Master had ended this discourse, he said: “So, Brethren, it is not now only that the Tathagata is fertile in resource, but he was always the same.” Then he identified the Birth: “ At that time Ananda was the king, Sariputta the teacher, and I was the young man.”

“ King Kéaliiga,” ete—This story the Master told while dwelling at Jetavana about worship of the bo-tree performed by Elder Ananda. When the Tathagata had set forth on pilgrimage, for the purpose of gathering in those who were ripe for conversion, the citizens of Savatthi proceeded to Jetavana, their hands full of garlands and fragrant wreaths, and finding no other place to show their reverence, laid them by the gateway of the perfumed chamber and went off. This caused great rejoicings. But Anathapindika got to hear of it; and on the return of the Tathagata visited Elder Ananda and said to him,—“ This monastery, Sir, is left unprovided while the Tathagata goes on pilgrimage, and there is no place for the people to do reverence by offering fragrant wreaths and garlands. Will you be so kind, Sir, as to tell the Tathagata of this matter, and learn from him whether or no it is possible to find a place for this purpose.” The other, nothing loth, did so, asking, “ How many shrines are there ?”—“ Three, Ananda.”—“ Which are they ?”—“ Shrines for a relic of the body, a relic of use or wear, a relic of memorial 2.”—“Can a shrine be made, Sir, during your life?”—“No, Ananda, not a body-shrine ; that kind is made when a Buddha enters Nirvana. A shrine of memorial is improper because the connection depends on the imagination only. But the great bo-tree used by the Buddhas is fit for a shrine, be they alive or be they dead.” —“ Sir, while you are away on pilgrimage the great monastery of Jetavana

1 See Hardy, Eastern Monachism, pp. 213—4. * See Hardy, Hastern Monachism, 216 f. The last class is said to be images of the Buddha. is unprotected, and the people have no place where they can show their reverence. Shall I plant a seed of the great bo-tree before the gateway of Jetavana ?”-—“ By all means so do, Ananda, and that shall be as it were an abiding place for me.” The Elder told this to Anathapindika, and Visikha, and the king. Then at the gateway of Jetavana he cleared out a pit for the bo to stand in, and said to the chief Elder, Moggallana, “I want to plant a bo-tree in front of Jetavana. Will you get me a fruit of the great bo-tree?” The Elder, well willing, passed through the air to the platform under the bo-tree. [229] He placed in his robe a fruit that was dropping! from its stalk but had not reached the ground, brought it back, and delivered it to Ananda. The Elder informed the King of Kosala that he was to plant the bo-tree that day. So in the evening time came the King with a great concourse, bringing all things necessary ; then came also Anathapindika and Visakha and a crowd of the faithful besides.

In the place where the bo-tree was to be planted the Elder had placed a golden jar, and in the bottom of it was a hole; all was filled with earth moistened with fragrant water. He said, “O king, plant this seed of the bo-tree,” giving it to the king. But the king, thinking that his kingdom was not to be in his hands for ever, and that Anaithapindika ought to plant it, passed the seed to Anathapindika, the great merchant. Then Anathapindika stirred up the fragrant soil and dropt it in. The instant it dropt from his hand, before the very eyes of all, up sprang as broad as a plough-head a bo-sapling, fifty cubits tall; on the four sides and upwards shot forth five great branches of fifty cubits in length, like the trunk. So stood the tree, a very lord of the forest already ; a mighty miracle! The king poured round the tree jars of gold and of silver, in number eight hundred, filled with scented water, beauteous with a great quantity of blue water-lilies. Ay, and caused to be set there a long line of vessels all full, and a seat he had made of the seven precious things, golden dust he had sprinkled about it, a wall was built round the precincts, he erected a gate chamber of the seven precious things. Great was the honour paid to it.

The Elder approaching the Tathagata, said to him, “Sir, for the people’s good, accomplish under the bo-tree which I have planted that height of Attainment to which you attained under the great bo-tree.” “What is this you say, Ananda?” replied he. “There is no other place can support me, if I sit there and attain to that which I attained in the enclosure of the great bo-tree.” “Sir,” said Ananda, “I pray you for the good of the people, to use this tree for the rapture of Attainment, in so far as this spot of ground can support the weight.” The Master used it during one night for the rapture of Attainment. The Elder informed the king, and all the rest, and called it by the name of the Bo Festival. And this tree, having been planted by Ananda, was known by the name of Ananda’s Bo-Tree. At that time they began to talk of it in the Hall of Truth. “Brother, while yet the Tathagata lived, the venerable Ananda caused a bo-tree to be planted, (230) and great reverence to be paid to it. Oh, how great is the Elder’s power !” The Master entering asked what they were talking of. They told him. He. said, “This is not the first time, Brethren, that Ananda led captive mankind in the four great continents, with all the surrounding throngs, and caused a vast quantity of scented wreaths to be brought, and made a bo-festival in the precinct of the great bo-tree.” So saying, he told a story of the past.

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Kalinga, and in the city of Dantapura, reigned a king named Kalinga. He had two sons, named 144 The Jataka. Book XIII. Maha-Kalinga and Culla-Kalinga, Kalinga the Greater and the Less. Now fortune-tellers had foretold that the eldest son would reign after his father’s death; but that the youngest would live as an ascetic, and live by alms, yet his son would be an universal monarch. Time passed by, and on his father’s death the eldest son became king, the youngest viceroy. The youngest, ever thinking that a son born of him was to be an universal monarch, grew arrogant on that account. This the king could not brook, so sent a messenger to arrest Kalinga the Less. The man came and said, “ Prince, the king wishes to have you arrested, so save your life.” The prince showed the courtier charged with this mission his own signet ring, a fine rug, and his sword: these three. Then he said, “By these tokens’ you shall know my son, and make him king.” With these words, he sped away into the forest. There he built him a hut in a pleasant place, and lived as an ascetic upon the bank of a river.

Now in the kingdom of Madda, and in the city of Sagala, a daughter was born to the King of Madda. Of the girl, as of the prince, fortunetellers foretold that she should live as an ascetic, but her son was to be an universal monarch. The Kings of India, hearing this rumour, came together with one accord, and surrounded the city. The king thought to himself, “‘ Now, if I give my daughter to one, all the other kings will be enraged. I will try to save her.” So with wife and daughter he fled disguised away into the forest ; and after building him a hut some distance up the river, above the hut of Prince Kalinga, [231] he lived there as an ascetic, eating what he could pick up. The parents, wishing to save their daughter, left her behind in the hut, and went out to gather wild fruits. While they were gone she gathered flowers of all kinds, and made them into a flower-wreath. Now on the bank of the Ganges there is a mango tree with beautiful flowers, which forms a kind of natural ladder. Upon this she climbed, and playing managed to drop the wreath of flowers into the water’.

One day, as Prince Kalinga was coming out of the river .after a bath, this flower-wreath caught in his hair. He looked at it, and said, “Some woman made this, and no full-grown woman but a tender young girl. I must make search for her.” So deeply in love he journeyed up the Ganges, until he heard her singing in a sweet voice, as she sat in the mango tree. He approached the foot of the tree, ? The tokens are a familiar feature of folk-tales. We may compare the story of Theseus, with his father’s sword and sandals: Pausanias, i. 27. 8. * Another familiar episode in folk-tales, but of Protean form. It is commonly a hair of the lady’s head that falls. See Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, i. 241 (India), 251 (Egypt); North Indian Notes and Queries, ii. 704; Lal Behari Day, Folk Tales of Bengal, No, 4, and seeing her, said, “‘ What are you, fair lady?” “I am human, Sir,” she replied. ‘‘Come down, then,” quoth he. ‘Sir, I cannot; I am of the warrior caste’.” ‘So am I also, lady: come down!” ‘No, no, Sir, that I cannot do. Saying will not make a warrior; if you are so, tell me the secrets of that mystery.” Then they repeated to each other these guild secrets. And the princess came down, and they had connexion one with the other.

When her parents returned she told them about this son of the King of Kalinga, and how he came into the forest, in all detail. They consented to give her to him. While they lived together in happy union, the princess conceived, and after ten months brought forth a son with the signs of good luck and virtue; and they named him Kalinga. He grew up, and learnt all arts and accomplishments from his father and grandfather. At length his father knew from conjunctions of the stars that his brother was dead. So he called his son, and said, ‘My son, you must not spend your life in the forest. Your father’s brother, Kalinga the Greater, is dead; you must go to Dantapura, and receive your hereditary kingdom.” [232] Then he gave him the things he had brought away with him, signet, rug, and sword, saying, “My son, in the city of Dantapura, in such a street, lives a courtier who is my very good servant. Descend into his house and enter his bedchamber, and show him these three things and tell him you are my son. He will place you upon the throne.” The lad bade farewell to his parents and grandparents ; and by power of his own virtue he passed through the air, and descending into the house of that courtier entered his bedchamber. ‘Who are you?” asked the other. ‘The son of Kalinga the Less,” said he, disclosing the three tokens.

The courtier told it to the palace, and all those of the court decorated the city and spread the umbrella of royalty over his head. Then the chaplain, who was named Kalinga-bharadvaja, taught him the ten ceremonies which an universal monarch has to perform, and he fulfilled those duties. Then on the fifteenth day, the fast-day, came to him from Cakkadaha the precious Wheel of Empire, from the Uposatha stock the precious Elephant, from the royal Valaha breed the precious Horse, from Vepulla the precious Jewel; and the precious wife, retinue, and prince made their appearance’, Then he achieved sovereignty in the whole terrestrial sphere.

One day, surrounded by a company which covered six-and-thirty leagues, and mounted upon an elephant all white, tall as a peak of Mount 2 For an account of the Cakkavatti, and the miracles at his appearing, consult Hardy’s Manual, 126 ff. See also Rhys Davids on the Questions of Milinda, vol. i. p. 57 (he renders the last two treasurer and adviser), and Buddhist Suttas, p. 257. 146 The Jataka. Book XIII. Kelasa, in great pomp and splendour he went to visit his parents. But beyond the circuit! around the great bo-trée, the throne of victory of all the Buddhas, which has become the very navel of the earth, beyond this the elephant was unable to pass: again and again the king urged him on, but pass he could not. ; Explaining this, the Master recited the first stanza : “King Kalinga, lord supreme, Ruled the earth by law and right, To the bo-tree once he came On an elephant of might.” Hereupon the king’s chaplain, who was travelling with the king, thought to himself, “In the air is no hindrance; why cannot the king make his elephant go on? [233] TI will go, and see.” Then descending from the air, he beheld the throne of victory of all Buddhas, the navel of the earth, that circuit around the great bo-tree. At that time, it is said, for the space of a royal karisa® was never a blade of grass, not so big as a hare’s whisker ;

it seemed as it were a smooth-spread sand bright lke a silver plate; but on all sides were grass, creepers, mighty trees like the lords of the forest, as though standing in reverent wise all about with their faces turned towards the throne of the bo-tree. When the brahmin beheld this spot of earth, “This,” thought he, ‘‘is the place where all the Buddhas have crushed all the desires of the flesh; and beyond this none can pass, no not if he were Sakka himself.” Then approaching the king, he told him the quality of the bo-tree circuit, and bade him descend.

By way of explaining this the Master recited these stanzas following : “This Kalinga-bharadvaja told his king, the ascetic’s son, As he rolled the wheel of empire, guiding him, obeisance done: “<«This the place the poets sing of; here, O mighty king, alight! Here attained to perfect wisdom perfect Buddhas, shining bright. “Tn the world, tradition has it, this one spot is hallowed ground, Where in attitude of reverence herbs and creepers stand around ®. “<“Come, descend and do obeisance ; since as far as the ocean bound In the fertile earth all-fostering this one spot is hallowed ground. . 1 The word is used both of the seat under the tree and of the raised terrace built around it. 2 Or should it be a karisa round the king? 3 The scholiast says of this mando: ‘As the age continues, at first it continues the same, then with the waning of the age wanes again and grows less.’ “All the elephants thou ownest thorobred by dam and sire, Hither drive them, they will surely come thus far, but come no nigher. ‘““* fe is thorobred you ride on; drive the creature as you will, He can go not one step further: here the elephant stands still.

“Spake the soothsayer, heard Kalinga; then the King to him, quoth he, Driving deep the goad into him—‘Be this truth, we soon shall see.’ “Pierced, the creature trumpets loudly, shrill as any heron cries, Moved, then fell upon his haunches neath the weight, and could not rise.” [234] Pierced and pierced again by the king, this elephant could not endure the pain, and so died ; but the king knew not he was dead, and sat there still on his back. Then Kalingabharadvaja said, “O great king! your elephant is dead; pass on to another.” To explain this matter, the Master recited the tenth stanza : “When Kalinga-bharadvaja saw the elephant was dead, He in fear and trepidation then to king Kalinga said : ‘Seek another, mighty monarch: this thy elephant is dead’.” [235] By the virtue and magical power of the king, another beast of the Uposatha breed appeared and offered his back. The king sat on his back. At that moment the dead elephant fell upon the earth. To explain this matter, the Master repeated another stanza : “This heard, Kalinga in dismay Mounted another, and straightway Upon the earth the corpse sank down, And the soothsayer’s word for very truth was shown.”

Thereupon the king came down from the air, and beholding the precinct of the bo-tree, and the miracle that was done, he praised Bharadvaja, saying— “To Kalinga-bharadvaja king Kalinga thus did say: “All thou know’st and understandest, and thou seest all alway.’” Now the brahmin would not accept this praise ; but standing in his own humble place, he extolled the Buddhas, and praised them. 148 The Jataka. Book XIII. To explain this, the Master repeated these stanzas : “But the brahmin straight denied it, and thus spake unto the king: ‘T know sooth of marks and tokens: but the Buddhas, every thing. “«Though all-knowing and all-séeing, yet in marks they have no skill: They know all, but know by insight: I a man of books am still.” The king, hearing the virtues of the Buddhas, was delighted in heart ; and he caused all the dwellers in the world to bring fragrant wreaths in plenty, and for seven days he made them do worship at the circuit of the Great Bo-tree. [236] By way of explanation, the Master recited a couple of stanzas : “Thus worshipt he the great bo-tree! with much melodious sound Of music, and with fragrant wreaths; a wall he set around,

“and after that the king went on his way— “Brought flowers in sixty thousand carts an offering to be ; Thus king Kalinga worshipped the Circuit of the Tree.” Having in this manner done worship to the Great Bo-tree, he visited his parents, and took them back with him again to Dantapura; where he gave alms and did good deeds, until he was born again in the Heaven The Master, having finished this discourse, said : “It is not now the first time, Brethren, that Ananda did worship the bo-tree, but aforetime also ;” and then he identified the Birth :—“ At that time Ananda was Kalinga, and I myself was Kalinga-bharadvaja.”

“Sakka, the lord of beings,” etc-—This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana, about a generous donor who lived in Savatthi. This man, So it is said, invited the Master, and for seven days gave many gifts to the company which followed with him; on the last day he presented the company of the Saints with all things necessary for them. Then said the 1 Reading tain bodhim. Master, rendering thanks to him, “Lay Brother, great is thy generosity: a thing most difficult thou hast done. This custom of giving is the custom of wise men of old. Gifts must be given, be ye in the world, be ye in retirement from the world; the wise men of old, even when they had left the world and dwelt in the woodland, when they had to eat but Kara! leaves sprinkled with water, without salt or spice [237], yet gave to all beggars that passed by to serve their need, and themselves lived on their own joy and blessedness.” The man answered, “Sir, this giving of all necessary things to the company is clear enough, but what you say is not clear. Will you not explain it tous?” Then the Master at his request told a story of the past.

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born in the family of a Brahmin magnate, whose fortune amounted to eighty crores. They named him Akitti. When the time came he was able to walk, a sister was born, and they gave her the name Yasavati. The Great Being proceeded at the age of sixteen years to Benares, where he completed his education and then returned. After that his mother and father died. He had performed all that behoves for the spirits of the dead, and was inspecting his treasure’: ‘So and so,” ran the catalogue, “laid up so much and died, such another so much.” Hearing this he was disturbed in his mind, and thought, “ This treasure is here for all to see, but they that gathered it are no more seen: they have all gone and left the treasure behind them, but when I pass away I will take it with me.” So sending for his sister, he said, “Take charge of this treasure.” ‘What is your own intent?” she asked. He replied, ’ she answered, “I will not take on my head that which you have spewed out of your mouth; I will have none of it, but I also will become an ascetic.” Then having asked leave of the king, he caused the drum to beat all about the city, and proclamation to be made: “Oyez! Let all those who wish for money

“To become an ascetic.” ‘ Dear one,’ repair to the wise man’s house!” For seven days he distributed great store of alms, and yet the treasure did not come to an end. Then he thought to himself, “The elements of my being waste away, and what do I want with this treasure-game? Let those who desire it, take.” Then he opened wide the doors of the house, saying, “‘’Tis a gift ; let the people take it.” So leaving the house with all its gold and precious metal, with his kinsfolk weeping around, he and his sister departed. And the gate of Benares by which they went was called Akitti’s Gate, and the landingstage by which they went down to the river, this also was called the Quay of Akitti. Three leagues he traversed, and there in a pleasant spot made a hut of leaves and branches, and with his sister lived in it as an ascetic [238]. l Canthium parviflorum. 2 Cf. vol. iii. p. 39 (no, 313). 150 The Jataka. Book XIII. After the time of his retiring from the world, many others also did the same, villagers, townsfolk, citizens of the royal city ; great was the company of them, great the gifts and the honour they received ; it was like to the arising of a Buddha. Then the Great Being thought within himself, ‘“‘Here is great honour and store of alms, here is a great company, yea passing great, but I ought to dwell alone.” So at a time when no man expected, without even warning his sister, alone he departed, and by and by came to the kingdom Damila’, where dwelling in a park over against Kavirapattana, he cultivated a mystic ecstasy and the supernatural Faculties.

There also he received much honour and great store of gifts. This liked him not, and he forsook it, and passing through the air descended at the isle of Kara, which is over against the island of Naga. At that time, Karadipa was named Ahidipa, the Isle of Snakes. There he built him an hermitage beside a great kara-tree, and dwelt in it. But that he dwelt there no man knew.

Now his sister went searching for her brother, and in due course came to the kingdom of Damila, saw him not, yet dwelt in the very place where he dwelt, but could not induce the mystic ecstasy. The Great Being was so contented that he went no whither, but at the time of fruit fed upon the fruit of that tree, and at time of putting forth of leaves fed on its leaves sprinkled with water. By the fire of his virtue Sakka’s marble throne became hot. ‘‘Who would bring me down from my place?” thought Sakka, and considering, he beheld the wise man. “ Why is it,” thought he, “yon ascetic guards his virtue? Is it that he aspires to Sakka-hood, or for some other cause? I will test him. The man lives in misery, eats kara-leaves sprinkled with water: if he desires to become Sakka, he will give me his own sodden leaves; but if not, then he will not give them.” Then in the guise of a brahmin he went to the Bodhisatta. The Bodhisatta sat at the door of his leaf-hut, having sodden the leaves and laid them down: ‘“‘ When they are cool,” thought he, “I will eat them.” At that moment Sakka stood before him, craving an alms. When the Great Being beheld him, he was glad at heart; “A blessing for me,” he thought, “I see a beggar; this day I shall attain the desire of my heart [239], and I shall give an alms.” When the food was ready, he took it in his bowl at once, and advancing towards Sakka, said to him, “This is my gift:

be it the means of my gaining omniscience!” Then without leaving any for himself, he laid the food in the other’s bowl. The brahmin took it, and moving a short way off disappeared. But the Great Being, having given his gift, cooked no more again, but sat still in joy and blessedness, Next day he cooked again, and sat as before at

1 The Malabar coast or Northern Ceylon. 2 Near Ceylon, or part of it. the entering in of the hut. Again Sakka came in the semblance of a brahmin, and again the Great Being gave him the meal, and continued in joy and blessedness, On the third day again he gave as before, saying, “See what a blessing for me! A few kara-leaves have begotten great merit for me.” Thus in heartfelt joy, weak as he was for want of food for three days, he came out of his hut at noontide and sat in the door, reflecting upon the gift which he had given. And Sakka thought: “This brahmin fasting for three days, weak as he is, yet gives to me, and takes joy in his giving. There is no other meaning in his thoughts; I do not understand what it is he desires and why he gives these gifts, so J must ask him, and find out his meaning, and learn the cause of his giving.” Accordingly he waited till past midday, and in great glory and magnificence came to the Great Being blazing like the young sun; and standing before him, put to him the question: “ Ho, ascetic! why do you practise the ascetic life in this forest, surrounded by the salt sea, with hot winds beating upon yout?”

To make clear this matter, the Master repeated the first stanza: “Sakka, the lord of beings, saw Akitti honouréd : ‘Why, O great Brahmin, do you rest here in the heat?’ he said.” When the Great Being heard this, and perceived that it was Sakka, he answered and said to him, “Those Attainments I do not crave; but craving for omniscience I live the life of a recluse.” To make this clear, he recited the second stanza : [240] “Re-birth, the body’s breaking up, death, error—all is pain : Therefore, O Sakka Vasava! I here in peace remain.” Hearing these words, Sakka was pleased in his heart, and thought— ‘“‘ He is dissatisfied with all kinds of being, and for Nirvana’s sake dwells in the forest. I will offer him a boon.” Then he invited him to choose a boon in the words of the third stanza : “Fair spoken, Kassapa, well put, most excellently said: Choose now a boon—as bids your heart, so let the choice be made.” The Great Being repeated the fourth stanza, choosing his boon : “Sakka, the lord of beings all, has offered me a boon’, Son, wife or treasure, grain in store, content not tho’ possessed : I pray no lust for such as these may harbour in my breast.”

1 This couplet has already been given: see p. 7, above, 2 See p. 7. 152 The Jataka. Book XIII. Then Sakka, much pleased, offered yet other boons, and the Great Being accepted them, each in turn repeating a stanza as follows : “Fair spoken, Kassapa, well put, most excellently said: Choose now a boon—as bids your heart, so let the choice be made.” “Sakka, the lord of beings all, has offered me a, boon. Lands, goods, and gold, slaves, horse, and kine, grow old and pass away: May I be not like them, nor be this fault in me, I pray.” “ Fair spoken,” etc. “Sakka, the lord of all the world, has offered me a boon. May I not see or hear a fool, nor no such dwell with me, Nor hold no converse with a fool, nor like his company.” [241] “What has a fool e’er done to you, O Kassapa, declare ! Come tell me why fools’ company is more than you can bear?” “The fool does wickedly, binds loads on him that none should bear, Ill-doing is his good, and he is wroth when spoken fair, Knows not right conduct; this is why I would have no fool there.”

“Fair spoken, Kassapa,” etc. “ Sakka, the lord of beings all, has oftered me a boon. Be it mine the wise to see and hear, and may he dwell with me, May I hold converse with the wise, and love his company.” “What has the wise man done to you, O Kassapa, declare! Why do you wish that where you are, the wise man should be there?” “The wise does well, no burden binds on him that none should bear, Well-doing is his good, nor is he wroth when spoken fair, Knows well right conduct; this is why ’tis well he should be there.” “Fair spoken, Kassapa,” etc. “Sakka, the lord of beings all, has offered me a boon. May I be free from lusts, and when the sun begins to shine May holy mendicants appear, and grant me food divine ; “May this not dwindle as I give, nor I repent the deed, But be my heart in giving glad: this choose I for my meed.” “Fair spoken, Kassapa, well put, most excellently said: Choose now a boon—as bids your heart, so let the choice be made.” “Sakka, the lord of beings all, to me a boon he gave:— O Sakka, visit me no more: this boon is all I crave.”

“But many men and women too of those who live aright Desire to see me: can there be a danger in the sight?” “Such is thy aspect all divine, such glory and delight, This seen, I may forget my vows: this danger has the sight.” [242] “ Well, Sir,” said Sakka, “I will never visit you more”; and so saluting him, and craving his pardon, Sakka departed. The Great Being then dwelt all his life long, cultivating the Excellences, and was born again in the world of Brahma. _ The Master, having completed this discourse, identified the Birth: “ At that time Anuruddha was Sakka, and I myself was the wise Akitti.”

“T spoke,” etc. This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana, about Kokalika. During one rainy season the two Chief Disciples’, desiring to leave the multitude and to dwell apart, took leave of the Master, and went into the kingdom where Kokalika was. They repaired to the house of Kokalika, and thus said to him: “ Brother Kokalika [243], since for us it is delightful to dwell with you, and for you to dwell with us, we would abide here three months.” “‘ How,” quoth the other, “will it be delightful for you to dwell with me?” They answered, “If you tell not a soul that the two Chief Disciples are dwelling here, we shall be happy, and that will be our delight in dwelling with you.” “And how is it delightful for me to dwell with you?” “We will declare the Law to you three months in your house, and we will discourse to you, and that will be your delight in dwelling with us.” “ Dwell here, Brethren,” quoth he, “so long as you will:” and he allotted a pleasant residence to them. There they dwelt in the fruition of the Attainments, and no man knew of their dwelling in that place.

When they had thus past the rains they said to him, “Brother, now we have dwelt with you, and we will go to visit the Master,” and asked his leave to go. He agreed, and went with them on the rounds for alms in a village over against the place where they were. After their meal the Elders departed from the village. Kokalika leaving them, turned back and said to the people, “ Lay Brethren, you are like brute animals. Here the two Chief Disciples have been dweiling for three months in the monastery opposite, and you knew nothing of it: now they are gone.” “Why did you not tell us, Sir?” the people asked. Then they took ghee and oil and simples, raiment and clothes, and approached the Elders, saluting them and saying, “ Pardon us, Sirs ; we knew not you were the Chief Disciples, we have learnt it but to-day by the words of the reverend Brother Kokalika. Pray have compassion on us, and receive these simples and clothes.” Kokalika went after the Elders with them, for he thought, “Frugal the Elders are, and content with little ; they will not accept these things, and then they will be given to me.” But the Elders, because the gift was offered at the instigation of a Brother, neither accepted the things themselves nor had them given to Kokalika. The lay folk then said, “Sirs, if you will not accept these, come hither once again to bless us.” The Elders promised, and proceeded to the Master’s presence.

Now Kokalika was angry, because the Elders neither accepted those things themselves, nor had them given to him. The Elders, however, having remained a short while with the Master, chose out each five hundred Brethren as their following, and with these thousand Brethren went on pilgrimage seeking alms, as fav as Kokalika’s country. The lay folk came out to meet them, and led them to the same monastery, and showed them great hononr day by day. [244] Great was the store given them of clothes and of simples. Those Brethren who went out with the Elders dividing the garments gave of them to all the Brethren which had come, but to Kokalika gave none, neither did the Elders give him any. Kokdalika getting no clothes began to abuse and revile the 1 See L. Feer in Journal Asiatique, ix. Ser., xi. 189 ff. Compare also Zeitschr. der deutsch. morg. Gesellschaft, xlvii. 86, on at& wdxarpay. 2 Sariputta and Moggallana. 154 The Jataka. Book XIII. Elders: “Sariputta and Moggallana are full of sinful desire; they would not accept before what was offered them, but these things they do accept. There is no satisfying them, they have no regard for another.” But the Elders, perceiving that the man was harbouring evil on their account, set out with their followers to depart ; nor would they return, net though the people begged them to stay yet a few days longer. Then a young Brother said:

“Where shall the Elders stay, laymen? Your own particular Elder does not wish them to stay here. Then the people went to Kokalika, and said, ‘Sir, we are told you do not wish the Elders to stay here. Goto! Either appease them and bring them back, or away with you and live elsewhere!” In fear of the people this man went and made his request to the Elders. ‘Go back, Brother,” answered the Elders, “we will not return.” So he being unable to prevail upon them returned to the monastery. Then the lay brethren asked him whether the Elders had returned. “T could not persuade them to return,” said he. “Why not, Brother?” they asked. And then they began to think it must be, no good Brethren would dwell there because the man lived in sin; they must get rid of him. “Sir,” they said, “do not stay here; we have nothing here for you.”

Thus dishonoured by them, he took bowl and robe and went to Jetavana. After saluting the Master, he said, “Sir, Sariputta and Moggallana are full of sinful desire, they are in the power of sinftl desires!” The Master replied, “Say not so, Kokalika ; let your heart, Kokalika, be in charity with Sariputta and Moggallana; learn that they are good Brethren.” Kokalika said, “You believe in your two Chief Disciples, Sir; I have seen it with my own eyes ; they have sinful desires, they have secrets within them, they are wicked men.” So he said thrice (though the Master would have stayed him), then rose from his seat, and departed. Even as he went on his way there arose over all his body boils of the size of a mustard seed, grew and grew to the size of a ripe seed of the vilva tree!, burst, ran blood all over him. Groaning he fell by the gate of Jetavana, maddened with pain. <A great cry arose, and reached even to Brahma’s world—“ Kokalika has reviled the two Chief Disciples!” Then his spiritual teacher, the Brahma angel, Tudu by name, [245] learning the fact, came with the intent of appeasing the Elders, and said while poised in the air, “Kokalika, a cruel thing this you have done; make your peace with the Chief Disciples.” “Who are you, brother?” the man asked. “Tudu Brahma is my name,” said he. “ Have you not been declared by the Blessed One,” said the man, “one of those who return not??

That word means that such come not back to this earth. You will become a goblin upon a dunghill !” Thus he upbraided the great Brahma angel. And as he could not persuade the man to do as he advised, he replied to him, “May you be tormented according to your own word.” Then he returned to his abode of bliss. And Kokalika dying was born again in the Lotus Hell3. That he had been born there the great and mighty Brahma Lord‘ told to the Tathagata, and the Master told it to the Brethren. In the Hall of Truth the Brethren talked of the man’s wickedness: “Brother, they say Kokalika reviled Sariputta and Moggallana, and by the words of his own mouth came to the Lotus Hell.” The Master came in, and said he, ‘‘ What speak ye of, Brethren, as ye sit here?” They told him. Then he said, “This is not the first time, Brethren, that Kokalika was destroyed by his own word, and out of his own mouth was condemned to misery; it was the same before.” And he told them a story of the past.

2 Andgdmi, those of the Third Path, who return not to be reborn on earth. * Not in Hardy’s list of the chief Hells (Manual, p. 26); but there were 136 of them. Burnouf gives it, Introd. p. 201. 4 Sahampati; the meaning of the first part is unknown; he is the chief of the Brahma Heaven, of which Tudu is an angel. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, his chaplain was tawny-brown' and had lost all his teeth. His wife committed sin with another brahmin. This man was just like the other. The chaplain tried times and again to restrain his wife, but could not. Then he thought, “This my enemy I cannot kill with my own hands, but I must devise some plan to kill him.” So he came before the king, and said: “O king, your city is the chiefest city of all India, and you are the chiefest king: but chief king though you are, your southern gate is unlucky, and ill put together.” “Well now, my teacher, what is to be done?” ‘You must bring good luck into it and set it right.” ‘ What is to be done?” ‘We must pull down the old door, get new and lucky timbers, do sacrifice to the beings that guard the city, and set up the new on a lucky conjunction of the stars.” “So do, then,” said the king,

At that time, the Bodhisatta was a young man named Takkariya, [246] who was studying under this man. Now the chaplain caused the old gate to be pulled down, and the new was made ready ; which done, he went and said to the king, ‘‘ The gate is ready, my lord: to-morrow is an auspicious conjunction ; before the morrow is over, we must do sacrifice and set up the new gate.” ‘ Well, my teacher, and what is necessary for the rite?” ‘My lord, a great gate is possessed and guarded by great spirits. A brahmin, tawny-brown and toothless, of pure blood on both sides, must be killed ; his flesh and blood must be offered in worship, and his body laid beneath, and the gate raised upon it. This will bring luck to you and your city’.” “ Very well, my teacher, have such a brahmin slain, and set up the gate upon him.” The chaplain was delighted. ‘To-morrow,” said he, ‘‘I shall see the back of my enemy!” Full of energy he returned to his home, but could not keep a still tongue in his head, and said quickly to his wife, ‘Ah, you foul hag, whom will you have now to take your pleasure with? Tomorrow I shall kill your leman and make sacrifice of him!” ‘ Why will you kill an innocent man?” ‘The king has commanded me to slay and sacrifice a tawny-brown brahmin, and to set up the city gate upon him.

1 Pingalo is not a proper name; see p. 246. 6 (Pali). 2 A full stop should be placed at va. As printed, this sentence is unintelligible. 3 Human sacrifice at the founding of a building, or the like, must have been common in ancient times, so persistent are the traditions about it. For India, see Crooke, Intr. to Pop. Rel. and F.-L. of N. India, p. 237 and Index. When the Hooghly Bridge was built in Calcutta, I remember how it was commonly said by the natives that the builders had immured many young children in the foundations. For Greece it is attested by modern folk-songs such as the Bridge of Arta (Passow, Carm. Pop. Gr. no. 512), and one which I lately wrote down in Cos from oral tradition (published in Folk-Lore for 1899). The sacrifice is meant to propitiate the spirits disturbed by the digging. See Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 158. 156 The Jataka. Book XIII. Your leman is tawny-brown, and I mean to slay him for the sacrifice.” She sent her paramour a message, saying, “‘ They say the king wishes to slay a tawny-brown brahmin in sacrifice ; if you would save your life, flee

away in time, and with you all they who are like you.” So the man did: the news spread abroad in the city, and all those in the whole city who were tawny-brown fled away. The chaplain, nothing aware of his enemy’s flight, went early next morning to the king, and said, “ My lord, in such a place is a tawny-brown brahmin to be found; have him taken.” The king sent some men for him, but they saw none, and returning informed the king that he was fled away. ‘Search elsewhere,” said the king. [247] All over the city they searched, but found none. “Search quickly!” said the king. ‘‘ My lord,” they replied, “except your chaplain there is no such other.” “A chaplain,” quoth he, “cannot be killed.” ‘What do you say, my lord? According to the chaplain, if the gate is not set up to-day, the city will be in danger. When the chaplain explained the matter, he said that if we let this day go by, the auspicious moment will not come again until the end of a year. The city without a gate for a year, what a chance for our enemies! Let us kill some one, and sacrifice by the aid of some other wise brahmin, and set up the gate.” ‘But is there another wise brahmin like my teacher?” “There is, my lord, his pupil, a young man named Takkariya; make him your chaplain and do the lucky ceremony.” The king sent for him, and did honour to him, and made him chaplain, and commanded to do as had been said.

The young man went to the gate with a great crowd following. In the king’s name they bound and brought the chaplain. The Great Being caused a pit to be dug in the place where the gate was to be set up, and a tent to be placed over it, and with his teacher entered into the tent. The teacher beholding the pit, and seeing no escape, said to the Great Being, ‘‘My aim had succeeded. Fool that I was, I could not keep a still tongue, but hastily told that wicked woman. I have slain myself with my own weapon.” Then he recited the first stanza :

“T spoke in folly, as a frog might call Upon a snake 7 the forest: so I fall Into this pit, Takkariya!, How true, Words spoken out of season one must rue!” [248] ‘Then the other addressing him, recited this stanza : “The man who out of season speaks, will go Like this to ruin, lamentation, woe : Here you should blame yourself, now you must have This delved pit, my teacher, for your grave.” To these words he added yet this: “O teacher, not thou only, but 1 The name here is feminine, as the scholiast notes without explanation. many another likewise, has come to misery because he set not a watch upon his words.” So saying, he told him a story of the past to prove it. Once upon a time, they say, there lived a courtesan in Benares named Kali, and she had a brother named Tundila. In one day Kali would earn a thousand pieces of money. Now Tundila was a debauchee, a drunkard, a gambler; she gave him money, and whatever he got he wasted. Do what she would to restrain him, restrain him she could not. One day he was beaten at hazard, and lost the very clothes he was clad in. Wrapping about him a rag of loin-cloth, he repaired to his sister’s house. But command had been given by her to her serving-maids, [249] that if Tundila should come, they were to give him nothing, but to take him by the throat and cast him out.

And so they did: he stood by the threshold, and made his moan. Now a certain rich merchant’s son, who used constantly to give Kali a thousand pieces of money, on that day happened to see him, and says he, “Why are you weeping, Tundila?” ‘“« Master,” said he, “I have been beaten at the dice, and came to my sister ; and the serving-maids took me by the throat and cast me out.” ‘“Well, stay here,” quoth the other, “‘and I will speak to your sister.” He entered the house, and said, ‘Your brother stands waiting, clad in a rag of loin-cloth, Why do you not give him something to wear?” “Indeed,” she replied, ‘‘I will give nothing. If you are fond of him, give it yourself.” Now in that house of ill fame the fashion was this: out of every thousand pieces of money received, five hundred were for the woman, five hundred were the price of clothes, perfumes and garlands ; the men who visited that house received garments to clothe themselves in, and stayed the night there, then on the next day they put off the garments they had received, and put on those they had brought, and went their ways. On this occasion the merchant’s son put on the garments provided for him, and gave his own clothes to Tundila. He put them on, and with loud shouts hastened to the tavern. But Kali ordered her women that when the young man should depart next day, they should take away his clothes.

Accordingly, when he came forth, they ran up from this side and that, like so many robbers, and took the clothes from him, and stript him naked, saying, “ Now, young sir, be off!” Thus they got rid of him. Away he went naked: the people made sport of him, and he was ashamed, and lamented, saying, “It is my own doing, because I could not keep watch over my lips!” To make this clear, the Great Being recited the

third stanza : “Why ask of Tundila how he should fare At Kalika his sister’s hands? now see! My clothes are gone, naked am I and bare ; ’Tis monstrous like what happened late to thee.” [250] Another person relates this story. By carelessness of the goat- 158 The Jataka. Book XIII. herds, two rains fell a-fighting on a pasture at Benares. As they were hard at it, a certain fork-tail thought to himself, “These two will crack their polls and perish; I must restrain them.” So he tried to restrain them by calling out—“ Uncle, don’t fight!” Not a word he got from them: in the midst of the battle, mounting first on the back, then on the head, he besought them to stop, but could do nothing. At last he cried, “Fight, then, but kill me first!” and placed himself between the two heads. They went on butting away at each other. The bird was crushed as by a pounder, and came to destruction by his own act. To explain this other tale the Great Being repeated the fourth stanza: “Between two fighting rams a fork-tail flew, Though in the fray he had no part nor share. The two rams’ heads did crush him then and there. He in his fate was monstrous like to you!”

Another. There was a tal-tree which the cowherds set great store by. The people of Benares seeing it sent a certain man up the tree to gather fruit. As he was throwing down the fruit, a black snake issuing forth from an anthill began to ascend the tree; they who stood below tried to drive him off by striking at him with sticks and other things, but could not. Then they called out to the other, “ A snake is climbing the tree!” and he in terror uttered a loud cry. Those who stood below seized a stout cloth by the four corners, and bade him fall into the cloth, He let himself drop, and fell in the midst of the cloth between the four of them; swift as the wind he came, and the men could not hold him, [251] but jolled their four heads together and broke them, and so died. To explain this story the Great Being recited the fifth stanza: “Four men, to save a fellow from his fate, Held the four corners of a cloth below. They all fell dead, each with a broken pate. These men were monstrous like to you, I trow.” Others again tell this. Some goat-thieves who lived at Benares having stolen a she-goat one night, determined to make a meal in the forest: to prevent her bleating they muffled her snout and tied her up in a bamboo clump. Next day, on their way to kill her, they forgot the chopper.

“Now we'll kill the goat, and cook her,” said they; “bring the chopper here!” But nobody had one. ‘Without a chopper,’ said they, “we cannot eat the beast, even if we kill her: let her go! this is due to some merit of hers.” So they let her go. Now it happened that a worker in bamboos, who had been there for a bundle of them, left a basket-maker’s knife there hidden among the leaves, intending to use it when he came again. But the goat, thinking herself to be free, began playing about under the bamboo clump, and kicking with her hind legs made the knife drop. The thieves heard the sound of the falling knife, and on coming to

find out what it was, saw it, to their great delight; then they killed the goat, and ate her flesh’. Thus to explain how this she-goat was killed by her own act, the Great Being recited the sixth stanza : “A she-goat, in a bamboo thicket bound, Frisking about, herself a knife had found. With that same knife they cut the creature’s throat. It strikes me you are monstrous like that goat.” [252] After recounting this, he explained, “ But they who are moderate of speech, by watching their words have often been freed from the fate of death,” and then told a story of fairies ’®. A hunter, we are told, who lived in Benares, being once in the region of Himalaya, by some means or other captured a brace of supernatural beings, a nymph and her husband; and them he took and presented to the king. The king had never seen such beings before. ‘ Hunter,” quoth he, “what kind of creatures are these?” Said the man, ‘‘ My lord, these can sing with a honey-voice, they dance delightfully: no men are able to dance or sing as they can.” The king bestowed a great reward on the hunter, and commanded the fairies to sing and dance. But they thought, “Tf we are not able to convey the full sense of our song, the song will be a failure, they will abuse and hurt us; and then again, those who speak ’ so for fear of some falsehood or other they neither sang nor danced, for all the king begged them again and again. At last the king grew angry, and said, ‘Kill these creatures, and cook them, and serve them up to me.” This command he delivered in the words of the seventh stanza :

much speak falsely :’ “No gods are these nor heaven’s musicianers%, Beasts brought by one who fain would fill his purse. So for my ee let them cook me one, And one for breakfast by the morrow’s sun.” Then the fairy-dame thought to herself, ‘‘ Now the king is angry ; without doubt he will kill us. Now it is time to speak.” And immediately she recited a stanza : “A hundred thousand ditties all sung wrong All are not worth a tithe of one good song. To sing ill is a crime; and this is why (Not out of folly) fairy would not try.” 1 Alt rhv pdxapay’ mapoiula éml ray Kakds TL Kal’ éavTGy moolyTw, amd iaroplas Toabrns’ KoplvO.o Ovatay redobyres “Hpg éviatorov, 7H bd Mydelas idpuvOeloy Kal Axpala Kadovpévy, alya 7h Oew eOvov. Twes b€ THY KopucdyTw pucbwTay expypay Thy wdxalpay, Kal oxnmropévey émdedjo0ar ev0a dméGevro, n alé Tots wooly dvackadeboaca avépyve, kal Thy uev oxiyw airav dinreyiev, éavty 5¢ Tis copays airia éydvero. Zenobius, Prov. Gent. 1.27. So Suidas. 160 The Jataka. Book XIII. [253] The king, pleased with the fairy, at once recited a stanza : “She that hath spoken, let her go, that she The Himalaya hill again may see, But let them take~and kill the other one, And for to-morrow’s breakfast shave him done.”

But the other fairy thought, “If I hold my tongue, surely the king will kill me; now is the time to speak;” and then he recited another stanza : “The kine depend upon the clouds!, and men upon the kine, And I, O king! depend on thee, on me this wife of mine. Let one, before he seek the hills, the other’s fate divine.” When he had said this, he repeated a couple of stanzas, to make it clear, that they had been silent not from unwillingness to obey the king’s word, but because they saw that speaking would be a mistake. “O monarch ! other peoples, other ways: Tis very hard to keep you clear of blame. [254] The very thing which for the one wins praise, Another finds reproof for just the same. “Some one there is who each man foolish finds?; Each by imagination different still ; All different, many men and many minds, No universal law is one man’s will.” Quoth the king, ‘‘He speaks the truth; ’tis a sapient fairy ;” and much pleased he recited the last stanza: “Silent they were, the fairy and his mate: And he who now did utter speech for fear, Unhurt, free, happy, let him go his gait. This is the speech brings good, as oft we hear.”

Then the king placed the two fairies in a golden cage, and sending for the huntsman, made him set them free in the same place where he had caught them. [255] The Great Being added, “See, my teacher! In this manner the fairies kept watch on their words, and by speaking at the right time were set free for their well speaking ; but you by your ill speaking have come to great misery.” Then after showing him this parallel, he comforted him, saying, “‘ Fear not, my teacher ; I will save your life.” “Is there indeed a way,” asked the other, ‘‘how you can save me?” He replied, “It is not yet the proper conjunction of the planets.” He let the day go by, and in 1 Because their food (grass etc.) depends on rain. * Reading paracitte: ‘everybody is foolish in some other man’s opinion.” In line 2, there may be a pun on citto (various): ‘‘all the world becomes different through the power of thought.” the middle watch of the night brought thither a dead goat. ‘Go when you will, brahmin, and live,” said he, then let him go and never a soul the wiser. And he did sacrifice with the flesh of the goat, and set up the gate upon it.

_ When the Master had ended this discourse, he said: “This is not the first time, Brethren, that Kokalika was destroyed by his own words, but it was the same before ;” after which he identified the Birth: “At that time Kokalika was the tawny-brown man, and I myself was the wise Takkariya.”

“T bring you tidings,” etc. This story the Master told while dwelling in the Bamboo-grove, about Devadatta. One might say to him, “The Master is most useful to you, friend Devadatta. You received holy orders from the Tathagata, from him you learnt the Three Baskets, you obtained gifts and honour.” When such things were said, it is credibly reported he would reply, “No, friend ; the Master has done me no good, not so much as a blade of grass is worth. Of myself I received holy orders, myself I learned the Three Baskets, by myself I gained gifts and honour.” In the Hall of Truth the Brethren talked of all this : “ Ungrateful is Devadatta, my friend, and forgets a kindness done.” The Master came in, and would know what they talked of sitting there. They told him. Said he, “It is not now the first time, Brethren, that Devadatta is ungrateful, but ungrateful he was before ; and in days long gone by his life was saved by me, yet he knew not the greatness of my merit.” So saying, he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, a great merchant who possessed a fortune of eighty crores, had a son born to him; and he gave him the name of Maha-dhanaka, or Moneyman. But never a thing he taught him ; for said he, ‘‘ My son will find study a weariness of the flesh.” Beyond singing and dancing, eating and feasting, the lad knew nothing.

When he came of age, his parents provided him with a wife meet for him, and afterwards died. After their death, the youth surrounded by profligates, drunkards, and dicers, [256] spent all his substance with all manner of waste and profusion. Then he borrowed money, and could not repay it, and was dunned by his creditors. At last he thought, ‘What is my life to me? In this one existence I am as it were already changed into another being; to die is better.” Whereupon he said to his creditors, “ Bring your bills, and come hither. I have a

162 The Jataka. Book XITI. family treasure laid up and buried on the bank of the Ganges, and you shall have that.” They went along with him. He made as though he were pointing out here and there the hiding place of his treasure (but all the while he intended to fall into the river and drown), and finally ran and threw himself into the Ganges. As thé torrent bore him away, he cried aloud with a pitiful ery. Now at that time the Great Being had been born as a Deer, and having abandoned the herd, was dwelling near a bend of the river all by himself, in a clump of sal trees mixt with fair-flowering mangoes: the skin of his body was of the colour of a gold plate well burnished, forefeet and hindfeet seemed as it were covered with lac, his tail like the tail of a wild ox, the horns of him were as spirals of silver, eyes had he like bright polished gems, when he turned his mouth in any direction it seemed like a ball of red cloth. About midnight he heard this sad outcry, and thought, “T hear the voice of a man. While I live let him not die! I will save his life for him.” Arising from off his resting place in the bush, he went down to the river bank, and called out in a comfortable voice, “Ho man! have no fear, I will save you alive.” Then he cleft the current, and swam to him, and placed him upon his back, and bore him to the bank and to his own dwelling-place;

where for two or three days he fed him with wild fruits’. After this he said to the man, “‘O man, I will now convey you out of this wood, and set you in the road to Benares, and you shall go in peace. But I pray you, be not led away by greed of gain to tell the king or some great man, that in such a place is a golden deer to be found.” The man promised to observe his words; and the Great Being, having received his promise, took him upon his back and carried him to the road to Benares, and went his way.

On the day when he reached Benares, the Queen Consort, whose name was Khema, saw at morning in a dream how a deer of golden colour preached the Law to her ; [257] and she thought, ‘‘If there were no such creature as this, I should not have seen him in my dream. Surely there must be such a one; I will announce it to the king.” Then she went to the king, and said, “Great king! I am anxious to hear the discourse of a golden deer. If I may, I shall live, but if not there is no living for me.” The king comforted her, saying, “If such a creature exists in the world of men, you shall have it.” Then he sent for the brahmins, and put the question—“ Are there such things as goldcoloured deer?” ‘Yes, there are, my lord.” The king laid upon the back of an elephant richly caparisoned a purse of a thousand pieces of money enclosed within a casket of gold: whoso should bring word of a golden deer, the king was willing to give him the purse with a thousand pieces, the casket of gold, and that elephant withal or a better, He caused a stanza to be engraved upon a tablet of gold, and delivered this to one of his court, bidding him ery the stanza in his name among all the townsfolk. Then he recited that stanza which comes first in this Birth: “Who brings me tidings of that deer, choicest of all the breed ? Fair women and a village choice who wins him for his meed 2”

The courtier took the golden plate, and caused it to be proclaimed throughout all the city. Just then this young merchant’s son was entering Benares ; and on hearing the proclamation, he approached the courtier, and said, ‘‘I can bring the king news of such a deer; take me into his presence.” The courtier dismounted from his elephant, and led him before the king, saying, “ This man, my lord, says he can tell you tidings of the deer.” Quoth the king, “Is this true, man?” He answered, “It is true, O great king! you shall give me that honour.” And he recited the second stanza ; “J bring you tidings of that deer, choicest of all the breed : Fair women and a village choice then give me for my meed.” The king was glad when he heard these words of the treacherous friend. “Come now,” said he, ‘‘ where is this deer to be found?” “In such a place, my lord,” he replied, and declared the way they should go. With a great following he made the traitor guide him to the place, and then he said, [258] “Order the army to halt.” When the army was brought to a halt, he went on, pointing with his hand, “There is the golden deer, in that place yonder:” and he repeated the third stanza:

“ Within yon clump of flowering sal and mango, where the ground Is all as red as cochineal, this deer is to be found.” When the king heard these words, he said to his courtiers, “Suffer not the deer to escape, but with all speed set a circle about the grove, the men with their weapons in hand.” They did so,and made an outcry. The king with a certain number of others was standing apart, and this man also stood not far off. The Great Being heard the sound, and thought he, “Tt is the sound of a great host, therefore I must beware of them'.” He rose, and spying at all the company perceived the place where the king stood. ‘Where the king stands,’ thought he, “I shall be safe, and thither I must go;” and he ran towards the king. When the king saw him coming, he said, “A creature strong as an elephant would throw down everything in its path. I will put arrow to string and frighten the beast; if he is for running I will shoot him and make him weak, that I may take him.” Then stringing his bow, he stood facing the Bodhisatta.

1 Reading purisabhayena, or omitting me (with this it would be ‘‘I must beware of that man”). 164 The Jataka. Book XITI. To explain this matter, the Master repeated a couple of stanzas : “Forward he went: the bow was bent, the arrow on the string? ; When thus from far the deer called out, as he beheld the king: “¢Q lord of charioteers, great king, stand still! and do not wound: Who brought the news to you, that here this deer was to be found?’” [259] The king was enchanted with his honey-voice ; he let fall his bow, and stood still in reverence. And the Great Being came up to the king, and talked pleasantly with him, standing on one side. All the host also dropt their weapons, and came up and surrounded the king. At that inoment the Great Being asked his question of the king with a sweet voice (it was like one tinkling a golden bell): ‘““Who brought the news to you, that here this deer was to be found?” Just then the wicked man came closer, and stood within hearing. The king pointed him out, saying, “There is he that informed me,” and recited the sixth stanza :

“That sinful man, my worthy friend, that yonder stands his ground, He brought the news to me, that here the deer was to be found.” On hearing this, the Great Being rebuked his treacherous friend, and addressing the king recited the seventh stanza : “Upon the earth are many men, of whom the proverb’s true: ’Twere better save a drowning log than such a one as you?.” When he heard this, the king repeated another stanza: “Who is it you would blame in this, O deer? Is it some man, or is it beast or bird ? [260] I am possessed with an unbounded fear At this your human speech which late I heard.” Hereupon the Great Being replied, “‘O great king, I blame-no beast and I blame no bird, but a man:” to explain which he repeated the ninth stanza : “T saved him once, when like to drown On the swift swelling tide that bore him down: And now I am in danger through it. Go with the wicked, and be sure you'll rue it.” The king when he heard this was wroth with the man. ‘ What?” quoth he, “not to recognise his merit after such a good service! TI will shoot him and kill him!” He then repeated the tenth stanza:

“This four-winged flyer Ill let fly, And pierce him to the heart! So let him perish, The evil-doer in his treachery, Who for such kindness: done no thanks did cherish !” 1 This line is almost identical with iii, 274. 12 (p. 174, line 12 of this translation), » These lines are found in vol. i. p. 326. 8 (i. 180 of this translation). Then the Great Being thought, “I would not have him perish on my account,” and uttered the eleventh stanza: [261] “Shame on the fool, O king, indeed ! But no good men approve a killing; Let the wretch go, and give his meed, All that you promised him fulfilling: And I will serve you at your need.” The king was very glad to hear this, and lauding him, uttered the next stanza : “Surely this deer is good indeed, To pay back ill for ill unwilling. Let the wretch go! I give his meed, All that I promised him fulfilling. And you go where you will—good speed !” At this the Great Being said, “O mighty king, men say one thing with their lips, and do another;” to expound which matter he recited two “The cry of jackals and of birds is understood with ease ; Yea, but the word of men, O king, is harder far than these.

“A man may think, ‘This is my friend, my comrade, of my kin ;’ But friendship goes, and often hate and enmity begin!” When the king heard these words, he answered, “ O king of the deer! do not suppose that I am one of that kind; for I will not deny the boon I have promised you, not even if I lose my kingdom for it. [262] Trust me.” And he gave him choice of a boon. The Great Being accepted this boon at his hands, and chose this: That all creatures, beginning with himself, should be free from danger. This boon the king granted, and then took him back to the city of Benares, and having adorned and decorated the city, and the Great Being also, caused him to discourse to the queen his wife. The Great Being discoursed to the queen, and afterwards to the king and all his court, in a human voice sweet as honey ; he admonished the king to hold fast by the Ten Virtues of Kings, and he comforted the great multitude, and then returned to the woodland, where he dwelt among a herd of deer. The king sent a drum beating about the city, with this proclamation : “T give protection to all creatures!” From that time onwards no one durst so much as raise hand against beast or bird.

Herds of deer devoured the crops of mankind, and no one was able to drive them away. A crowd assembled in the king’s courtyard, and complained. 1 These lines have been used before: pages 135 and 141, 166 The Jataka. Book XIII. To make this clear, the Master repeated the following stanza : “The country-folk and townsfolk all straight to the king they went: ‘The deer are eating up our crops: this let the king prevent !’” Hearing this, the king recited a couple of stanzas : “Be it the people’s wish or no, e’en if my kingdom cease, I cannot wrong the deer, to whom I promised*life and peace. “The people may desert me all, my royal power may die, The boon I gave that royal deer I never will deny.” The people listened to the king’s words, and finding themselves unable to say anything, departed. This saying was spread abroad. The Great Being heard of it, and assembling all the deer, laid his bidding on them: ‘From this time forward you must not devour the crops of men.” [263] He then sent a message to men, that each should set up a placard on his own lands. The men did so; and at that sign even to this day the deer do not devour the crops.

When the Master had ended this discourse, he said, “This is not the first time, Brethren, that Devadatta has been ungrateful ;” and then he identified the Birth : “At that time, Devadatta was the merchant’s son, Ananda was the king, and I myself was the deer.”

“Toul on, O man,” ete.—This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana, to explain fully a question concisely put by himself to the Commander of the Faith. At that time the Master put a question concisely to that Elder. This is the full story, put briefly, of the descent from the world of gods. When the Reverend Pindola-Bharadvaja had by his supernatural power gained the’ sandal-wood bowl in the presence of the great merchant of Rajagaha®, the Master forbade the Brethren to use their miraculous powers. 1 Cf. Jayaddisa Jataka, no, 513, vol. v. * The story is told in Culla-vagga, v. 8 (Vinaya Teats, ut. p. 78, in the Sacred Books of the Hast). The settht had placed a sandal-wood bowl on a high pole, and challenged any holy person to get it down. Pindola rose in the air by magic power and took it. For this he was blamed by the Master, as having used his great gift for an unworthy end, Then the schismatics thought, “The ascetic Gotama has forbidden the use of miraculous power: now he will do no miracle himself.” Their disciples were disturbed, and said to the schismatics, “Why didn’t you take the bow! by your supernatural power?” They replied: “This is no hard thing for us, friend. “But we think, Who will display before the laity his own fine and subtile powers for the sake of a paltry wooden bowl? and so we did not take it. The ascetics of the Sakya class took it, and showed their supernatural power for sheer foolish greed. Do not imagine it is any trouble to us to work miracles, Suppose we leave out of consideration the disciples of Gotama the ascetic: if we like, we too will show our supernatural powers with the ascetic Gotama himself: if the ascetic Gotama works one miracle, we will work one twice as good.”

The Brethren who heard this told the Blessed One of it: “Sir, the schismatics say they will work a miracle.” Said the Master, “Let them do it, Brethren ; I will do the like.” Bimbisara, hearing this, went and asked the Blessed One: “ Will you work a miracle, Sir?” “Yes, O king.” ‘Was there not a command given on this matter, Sir?” ‘The command, O king, was given to my disciples; there is no command which can rule the Buddhas. [264] When the flowers and fruit in your park are forbidden! to others, the same rule does not apply to you.” “Then where will you work this miracle, Sir?” “At Savatthi, under a knot-mango tree.” ‘“ What have I to do, then?” “ Nothing, Sire.” Next day, after breaking his fast, the Master went to seek alms. ‘ Whither goes the Master?” asked the people. The Brethren answered to them, “At the gate of the city of Savatthi, beneath a knot-mango tree, he is to work a twofold miracle to the confounding of the schismatics.” The crowd said, “This miracle will be what they call a masterpiece; we will go see it:” leaving the doors of their houses, they went along with the Master. Some of the schismatics also followed the Master, with their disciples: “We too,” they said, “will work a miracle, in the place where the ascetic Gotama shall work his.” ; ‘ , :

By and bye the Master arrived at Savatthi. The king asked him, “Is it true, Sir, you are about to work a miracle, as they say?” “Yes, it is true,” he said. “When?” asked the king. ‘On the seventh day from now, at the full moon of the month of June.” “Shall I set up a pavilion, Sir?” “ Peace, great king: in the place where I shall work my miracle Sakka will set up a pavilion of jewels twelve leagues in compass.” “Shall I proclaim this thing through the city, Sir?” “Proclaim it, O king.” The king sent forth the Crier of the Truth on an elephant richly caparisoned, to proclaim thus: “News! the Master is about to perform a miracle, for the confounding of the schismatics, at the Gate of Savatthi, under a knot-mango tree, seven days from now!” Each day was this proclamation made. When the schismatics heard this news, that the miracle will be done under a knot-mango tree, they had all the mango trees near to Savatthi cut down, paying the owners for them. On the night of the full moon the Crier of the Truth made proclamation, “This day? in the morning the miracle will take place.” By the power of the gods it was as though all India was at the door and heard the proclamation ; whosoever had it in his heart to go, they all beheld themselves at Savatthi: for twelve leagues the crowd extended.

Early in the morning the Master went on his rounds seeking alms. The king’s gardener, Ganda or Knot by name, was just taking to the king a fine ripe mango fruit; thoroughly ripe, big as a bushel, when he espied the Master at the city gate. “This fruit is worthy of the Master,” said he, and gave it to him. ‘The Master took it, and sitting down then and there on one side, ate the fruit. When it was eaten, he said, “Ananda, give the gardener this stone to plant here on the spot; [265] this shall be the knot-mango tree.” The Elder did so. The gardener dug a hole in the earth, and planted it. On the 1 Reading varitam. 2 The Eastern day is reckoned from sunset to sunset. 168 The Jataka. Book XITI. instant the stone burst, roots sprouted forth, up sprang a red shoot tall as a plough-pole; even as the crowd stared it grew into a mango tree of a hundred cubits, with a trunk fifty cubits and branches of fifty cubits in height; at the same time flowers bloomed, fruit ripened ; the tree stood filling the sky, covered with bees, loaden with golden fruit; when the wind blew on it, sweet fruits fell; then the Brethren came up and ate of the fruit, and retired. In the evening time the king of the gods, reflecting, perceived that it was a task laid on him to make a pavilion of the seven precious things.

So he sent Vissakamma, and caused him to make a pavilion of the seven precious things, twelve leagues in compass, covered all over with blue lotus. Thus the gods of ten thousand spheres were gathered together. The Master, having for the confounding of the schismatics performed a twofold miracle passing marvellous among his disciples, caused faith to spring up in multitudes, then arose and, sitting in the Buddha’s seat, declared the Law. Twenty crores of beings drank of the waters of life. Then, meditating to see whither it was that former Buddhas went when they had done a miracle, and perceiving that it was to the Heaven of the Thirty-three, up he rose from the Buddha’s seat, the right foot he placed on the top of Mount Yugandhara!, and with his left strode to the peak of Sineru, he began the season of rains under the great Coral Tree”, seated upon the yellow-stone throne ; for the space of three months he discoursed upon transcendental doctrine* to the gods.

The people knew not the place whither the Master had gone; they looked, and said, “Let us go home,” and abode in that place during the rainy season. When the lenten season was near to its end, and the feast was at hand, the great Elder Moggallana went and announced it to the Blessed One. Thereupon the Master asked him, “Where is Sariputta now?” “He, Sir, after the miracle which delighted him, remained with five hundred Brethren in the city of Samkassa, and is there still.” ‘“ Moggallana, on the seventh day from now I shall descend by the gate of Samkassa. Let those who desire to behold the Tathagata assemble in the city of Samkassa.” The Elder assented, went and told the people: the whole company he transported from Savatthi to Samkassa, a distance of thirty leagues, in the twinkling of an eye. Lent over, and the feast celebrated, the Master told king Sakka that he was about to return to the world of men. Then Sakka sent for Vissakamma, and said to him, ‘“ Make a stairway for the Dasabala to descend into the world of men.” He placed the head of the stairway upon the peak of Sineru, and the foot of it by the gate of Samkassa, and between he made three descents side by side: one of gems, one of silver, and one of gold: [266] the balustrade and cornice were of the seven things of price. The Master, having performed a miracle for the world’s emancipation, descended by the midmost stair made out of gems. Sakka carried the bowl and robe, Suyama a yak’s-tail fan, Brahma Lord of all beings bore a sunshade, and the deities of ten thowsand spheres did worship with divine garlands and perfumes. When the Master stood at the foot of the staircase, first Elder Sariputta gave him greeting, afterwards the rest of the company.

Amidst this assembly the Master thought, “ Moggallana has been shown to possess supernatural power, Upali as one who is versed in the sacred law, but the quality of high wisdom possessed by Sariputta has not been shown. Save and except me, no other possesses wisdom so full and complete as his; I will make known the quality of his wisdom.” First of all he asked a question which is put to ordinary persons, and the ordinary persons answered it. Then he asked a question within the scope of those of the First Path, and this they of the First Path answered, but the ordinary folk knew nought of it. In the same way he asked questions in turn within the scope of those of the Second and 1 Mount Meru or Sineru, the Indian Olympus, is surrounded by seven concentric circles of hills, the innermost of which is Yugandhara. ? The tree named is the Erythmia Indica ; a great one grew in Indra’s heaven. 3 Abhidhamma. Third Paths, of the Saints, of the Chief Disciples; and in each case those who were below each grade in turn were unable to answer, but they who were above could answer. Then he put a question within the power of Sariputta, and this the Elder could answer, but the others not so. The people asked, “Who is this Elder who answered the Master?” They were told, it was the Captain of the Faith, and Sariputta was his name. “Ah, great is his wisdom!” they said. Ever afterwards the quality of the Elder’s great wisdom was known to men and to gods. Then the Master said to him,

“Some have probations yet to pass, and some have reached the goal: Their different deportments say, for thou dost know the whole!.” Having thus asked a question which comes within a Buddha’s scope, he added, “Here is a point put with brevity, Sariputta; what is the meaning of the matter in all its bearings?” The Elder considered the problem. Thought he, “The Master asks of the proper deportment with which the Brethren attain progress, both those who are in the lower Paths and those who are Saints?” As to the general question, he had no doubt. But then he considered, “The proper manner of deportment may be described in many ways of speaking according to the essential elements of being’, and so forth from that beginning ; now in what fashion can I hit the Master’s meaning?” He was doubtful about the meaning. The Master thought, “Sariputta has no doubt of the general question, but doubts what particular side of it I have in view. If I give no clue, he will never be able to answer, so a clue [267] I will give him.” This clue he gave by saying, “See here, Sariputta: you grant this to be true?” (mentioning some point). Sariputta granted the point.

The hint thus given, he knew that Sariputta had taken his meaning, and would answer fully, starting from the very elements of being. Then the question stood out clear before the Elder, as with a hundred hints, nay, a thousand ; and he, at the Master’s hint given, answered the question which belonged to a Buddha’s scope. The Master declared the Law to this company which covered twelve leagues of ground: thirty crores of beings drank of the waters of life. The company was dismissed, and the Master, going on pilgrimage for alms, came by and bye to Savatthi. Next day, after seeking alms in Savatthi, he came back from his rounds, and told the Brethren of their duty, and entered his Perfumed Chamber. At evening time, the Brethren talked of the high worth of the Elder as they sat in the Hall of Truth. “Great in wisdom, Sirs, is Sariputta; he has wisdom wide, wisdom swift, wisdom sharp, wisdom keen. The Master put a question in brief, and he answered it fully at large.” The Master entering asked what they talked of as they sat there. They told him. ‘This is not the first time, Brethren,” said he, “that he answered at large a question briefly put, but he has done so before ;” and he told them a story of the past.

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta lived in the forest, having been born as a stag. Now the king much delighted in hunting, and a mighty man was he: he reckoned no other man worthy of the name of man, One day as he went a-hunting he said to his courtiers, ‘‘ Whoever lets a deer go by him, such and such shall be his punishment.” They thought, “One may stand in the house and not find the granary®, When a deer is put up, by hook or by crook 1 Samkhatadhamma seems to mean an araha or asekha. 2 The five Khandhas. 3 Doubtless a proverb: one may miss the most obvious things. 170 The Jataka. Book XITI. we must drive him to the place where the king is.” They made a pact among them to this effect, and posted the’ king at the end of the path. Then they surrounded a great covert and began to beat on the ground with cudgels and the like. The first to be put up was our stag. Thrice he went round the thicket, looking for a chance of escape: on all other sides he saw men standing without a break, arm jostling arm and bow bow ; only where the king was could he see a chance. [268] With eyes glaring, he rushed at the king, dazzling him as though he cast sand in his eyes.

Quickly the king saw him, shot an arrow, and missed. You must know these deer are clever to keep clear of arrows. When the shafts come straight at them, the deer stand still and let them fly; let them come from behind, the deer outfly them faster; if they fall from above, they bend the back; from the side, they swerve a little; if the shafts are aimed at the belly, they roll right over, and when they have gone by, off go the deer swift as a cloud which the wind scatters. Thus the king, when he saw this stag roll over, thought he was hit and gave the halloa. Up rose the stag, swift as the wind he was off, breaking the circle of men. The courtiers on both sides who saw the stag get away collected together, and asked, “ Whose post did the stag make for?” ‘The king’s!” ‘“ But the king is shouting, I’ve hit him! What has he hit? Our king has missed, I tell you! He has hit the ground!” Thus they made sport of the king, and no stint. ‘These fellows are laughing at me,” thought the king ; ‘“‘they know not my measure.” Then girding up his loins, on foot, and sword in hand, he set off at speed crying, ‘‘I will catch the stag!” He kept him in sight and chased him for three leagues. The stag plunged into the forest, in plunged the king also.

Now in the stag’s way was a pit, a great hole where a tree had rotted away, sixty cubits deep, and full of water to a depth of thirty cubits, yet covered over with weeds. The stag sniffed the smell of the water, and perceiving that it was a pit, swerved aside somewhat from his course. But the king went straight on, and fellin. The stag, no longer hearing the sound of his footsteps, turned him about; and seeing no man, understood that he must have fallen into the pit. So he went and looked, and saw him in dire straits, struggling in the deep water ; for the evil he had done the stag bore no malice, [269] but pitifully thought, “ Let not the king perish before my eyes: I will set him free from this distress.” Standing upon the edge of the pit, he cried out, “Fear nothing, O king, for I will deliver you from your distress.” Then with an effort, as earnest as though he would save his own beloved son, he supported himself upon the rock ; and that king who had come after him to slay, him he drew up from out of the pit, sixty cubits in depth, and comforted him, and set him upon his own back, and led him forth from the forest, and set him down not far from his army. Then he admonished the king, and established him in the Five Virtues. But the king could

not leave the Great Being, but said to him: “ My lord king of the stags, come with me to Benares, for I give thee the lordship over Benares, a city that spreads over twelve leagues, that you may rule over it.” But he said, “Great king, I am one of the animals, and I want no kingdom. If you have any care for me, keep the good precepts I have taught you, and teach your subjects to keep them too.” With this advice, he returned into the forest. And the king returned to his army, and as he remembered the noble qualities of the stag his eyes filled with tears. Surrounded by a division of his army, he went through the city, while the drum of the Law was beat, and caused this proclamation to be made: “From this day forward, let all the dwellers in this city observe the five virtues.” But he told no one of the kindness done to him by the Great Being. After eating many choice meats, in the evening time, he reclined upon his gorgeous couch, and at daybreak remembering the noble qualities of the Great Being, he rose up and sat on the couch cross-legged, and with heart full of joy chanted his aspirations in six stanzas:

“Hope on O man, if thou be wise, nor let thy courage tire: Myself I see, who now have won the goal of my desire! “Hope on O man, if thou be wise, tire not though harassed sore: Myself I see, who from the waves have fought my way ashore”. “Toil on O man, if thou be wise, nor let thy courage tire : Myself I see, who now have won the goal of my desire. “Toil on O man, if thou be wise, tire not though harassed sore : Myself I see, who from the waves have fought my way ashore. “He that is wise, though overcome with pain, Would never cease to hope for bliss again. [270] Many are men’s feelings, both of joy and woe: They think not of it, yet to death they go.” “That comes to pass which is not thought ; and that is thought of, fails: For man or woman’s happiness not thought alone avails.” As the king was in the act of chanting these lines, the sun uprose. His chaplain had come thus early to enquire after the king’s welfare, and as he stood at the door he heard the sound of this chant, and thought to himself: “Yesterday the king went a-hunting. Doubtless he missed the stag, and being derided by his courtiers declared that he would catch and kill the quarry himself. Then no doubt he chased him, being pricked in his pride as a warrior, and fell into a sixty-cubit pit; and the merciful stag must have pulled him out without a thought of the king’s offence against him. That is why the king is chanting this hymn, methinks.” Thus the brahmin heard every word of the king’s chant ; and that which

1 The same stanza has occurred already in vol. i. p. 267 (i. 133 of this translation). The first line is found also in i. 450 (trans. i. 274). 2 The same stanza in i. 268 (trans. i. 133). 172 The Jataka. Book XIII. fell out betwixt the king and the stag became clear as a face reflected in a well-polished mirror. He knocked at ‘the door with his finger-tips. “Who is there?” the king asked. “It is I, my lord, your chaplain.” ‘‘Gome in, teacher,” quoth the king, and opened the door. He entered, and prayed victory for the king, and stood on one side. Then he said, “O great king! I know what happened to you in the forest. As you chased a stag you fell into a pit, and the stag resting upon the stone sides of the pit', [271] drew you out of it. So you remembering his magnanimity chanted a hymn.” Then he recited two stanzas: “The stag that on a mountain steep thy quarry was of late, He bravely gave thee life, for he was free from greed and hate. “Out of the horrid pit, out of death’s jaws, Leaning upon a rock! (a friend at need) The great stag saved thee: so thou saidst with cause, His mind is far aloof from hate or greed.”

“What!” thought the king, on hearing this—‘‘the man did not go a-hunting with me, yet he knows the whole matter! How can he know it? I will ask him”; and he repeated the ninth stanza : “O brahmin! wast thou there upon that day ? Or from some other witness didst thou hear ? The veil of passion thou hast rolled away : Thou seest all: thy wisdom makes me fear.” But the brahmin said, “I am no Buddha all-knowing ; only I overheard the hymn that you sang, without missing the meaning, and so the fact became clear before me.” ‘To explain which he repeated the tenth stanza : “O lord of men! I neither heard that thing, Nor was I there to see that day: {272] But from the verses thou didst sweetly sing Wise men can gather how the matter lay.” The king was delighted, and gave him a rich present. From thenceforward the king was devoted to almsgiving and good deeds, and his people being also devoted to good deeds as they died went to swell the hosts of heaven. Now one day it happened that the king went into his park with the chaplain to shoot at a mark. At that period Sakka had been pondering whence came all the new sons and daughters of the gods, whom he beheld so numerous about him. Pondering, he perceived the whole story: how the king had been rescued from the pit by that stag, and how he had become stablished in virtue, and how by the power of this king, multitudes did good deeds and heaven was being filled; and now the king had gone into his park to shoot at a mark, Then he also went thither, that with the

1 This may mean ‘‘first trying his strength with a stone,” as vol. v. pp. 68 and 70. So p. 170 above. voice of a lion he might proclaim the nobleness of the stag, and make known that himself was Sakka, and poised in the air might discourse on the Law, and declare the goodness of mercy and the Five Virtues, and then return. Now the king intending to shoot at his mark, strung a bow and fitted an arrow to the string. At that moment Sakka by his power made the stag to appear betwixt the king and the mark; the king seeing it did not let fly. Then Sakka, entering into the body of the chaplain, repeated by him to the king the following stanza : “Thy shaft is death to many a mighty thing: Why dost thou hold it quiet on the string? Let the shaft fly and kill the stag forthwith : "Tis meat for monarchs, O most sapient king!” [273] Thereto the king answered in a stanza: “JT know it, brahmin, no less sure than thou: The stag is meat for warrior men, I vow, But I am grateful for a service done, And therefore hold my hand from killing now.”

Then Sakka repeated a couple of stanzas : “Tis no stag, O mighty monarch! but a Titan is this thing, Thou art king of men; but kill it—of the gods thou shalt be king. “But if thou hesitate, O valiant king! To kill the stag, because he is thy friend: To death’s cold river! and to death’s dread king? Thou and thy wife and children shall descend.” At this the king repeated two stanzas: “So be it: to death’s river and death’s king Send me, my wives and children, all my train Of friends and comrades; I'll not do this thing, And by my hand this stag shall not be slain. [274] “Once in a grisly forest full of dread That very stag saved me from hopeless woe. How can I wish my benefactor dead After such service done me long ago ?” Then Sakka came forth from the chaplain’s body, and put on his own shape, and poised in the air recited a couple of stanzas which showed forth the noble worth of the king: “Live long on earth, O true and faithful friend ! Comfort with truth and goodness this domain ; Then hosts of maidens round thee shall attend While thou as Indra? mid the gods shalt reign. “From passion free, with ever-peaceful heart, When strangers crave, supply their weary need; As power is given thee, give, and play thy part’, Blameless, till heaven shall be thy final meed.”

1 Vetarani. 2 Yama. 3 Vasavo. 4 bhutvd, ‘having eaten,’ applied to time, means to ‘pass’: bhutva dvadasa vassani, Mah. 253. 174 The Jataka. Book XTTI. [275] Thus saying, Sakka king of the gods continued as follows: “I came hither to try you, O king, and you have given me no hold. Only be vigilant,” And with this advice he returned to his own place. When the Master had ended this discourse, he said: “This is not the first time, Brethren, that Sariputta knew in detail what was said only in general terms; but the same thing happened before.” 'Then he identified the Birth : “At that time Ananda was the king, Sariputta was the chaplain, and I myself the stag.”

[276] “ The crop of rice,” etc.—This was a story the Master told while dwelling at Jetavana, about a Brother who supported his mother. The occasion will be explained in the Sama Birtht. Then the Master sent for this Brother, and asked him, “Is what I hear true, Brother, that you support lay folks?” “It is true, Sir.” “Who are they?” “My mother and father, Sir.” Said the Master, “Well done, Brother! Wise men of old, even when embodied as the lower animals, having been born as parrots even, when their parents grew old laid them in a nest and fed them with food which they brought in their own beaks.” So saying, he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, a king named King Magadha reigned in Rajagaha. At that time there stood a brahmin village, named Salindiya, towards the north-east as you go out of the city. In this north-eastern district was property belonging to Magadha. There was a brahmin who lived in Salindiya, whose name was Kosiyagotta’, and he held an estate of one thousand acres*, where he grew rice. When the crop was standing, he made a stout fence, and gave the land in charge to his own men, to one fifty acres, to another sixty, and so he distributed among them some five hundred acres of his estate. [277] The other five hundred he delivered to a hired man for a wage, and the man made a hut there and dwelt there day and night. Now to the north-east of this estate was a certain great wood of silk-cotton trees‘, growing upon the flat top of a hill, and in this wood lived a great number of parrots.

1 No. 540; vol. vi. 68 of the Pali text. 2 One of the “‘ Kausika (owl) or Vi¢vamitra clan.” % karisa. 4 simbali: Bombax Heptaphyllum. 176 The Jataka. Book XIV. At that time the Bodhisatta was born among this flock of parrots, as the son of the king of the parrots. He grew up handsome and strong, big his body was as the nave of a cart-wheel. His father now grown old said to him, “I am able no longer to go far afield; do you take care of this flock,” and committed the lordship of it to his son. From the next day onwards he refused to permit his parents to go foraging ; but with the whole flock away he flew to the Himalaya hills, and after eating his fill of the clumps of rice that grew wild there, on his return brought food sufficient for his mother and father, and fed them with it. One day the parrots asked him a question. “Formerly,” they said, “the rice was ripe by this time on the Magadha farm ; is it grown now or not?” ‘Go and see,” he replied,-and then sent two parrots to find out. The parrots departed, and alighted in the Magadha lands, in that part which was guarded by the hired man; rice they ate, and one head of rice they took back with them to their wood, and dropt it before the Great Being’s feet, saying, ‘Such is the rice which grows there.” He went next day to the farm, and alighted, with all his flock.